


Tell Me About the Other Place

by JosieRuby1



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:52:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7669057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JosieRuby1/pseuds/JosieRuby1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil knows that Night Vale is weird, but it's normal for him. He wanted to know about the world beyond Night Vale, the world Carlos used to live in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Me About the Other Place

“Carlos” 

Cecil slid onto the sofa and placed his head into the lap of his perfect boyfriend. He looked up at the beautiful dark face, and deep brown eyes and the mess of hair that was in need of a cut. Carlos smiled at him but it was suspicious, he knew from Cecil’s tone that he was about to ask for something.

“Yes, Cecil?” He asked, running a hand through Cecil shorter, more tamed hair.

“Tell me about the other place?” Cecil asked. “Not the other dimension you were lost in, but where you come from. Tell me about the world outside of Night Vale.”

Carlos’ smile became gentle and reminiscent. He was amazed how little he spoke about the world outside of Night Vale, amazed more by how little he thought about it. Night Vale had been a complete turnover of his life, his world, and yet, he had gotten used to it so very quickly.

“What would you like to know?” Carlos asked, not wanting to go into long stories that would leave Cecil bored or falling asleep.

“I want to know everything,” Cecil said. “You are able to learn about Night Vale because you are here now and unable to leave, but I know nothing about your world, the other world out there.”

Carlos’ mind got momentarily lost on unable to leave but that was just one of the many things that were different about Night Vale. Other towns didn’t tend to trap people and make it impossible to get away from. Carlos however, didn’t mind, he didn’t feel trapped. He felt home. He never felt more at home than he did with Cecil close to him like right now.

“I don’t even know where to start.” Carlos commented, but then it hit him. “Time. Outside of Night Vale, time works. Properly I mean. And things don’t just appear and disappear. And the police are real and physical human beings and people… like humans? They don’t have like added limbs or like shapeshift or anything? Scientifically Night Vale is just so interesting because things that are here just shouldn’t… be”

Cecil smiled up at him. Typical Carlos, it always came back to science with him. It was one of the many things he loved about Carlos. He was so passionate. Cecil, himself, didn’t really understand science but he loved it. Because of Carlos. 

“I’m sorry,” Carlos took a moment to pause for breath. “I got a bit carried away there. There’s just so much, Cecil. So much.”

“That’s okay,” Cecil told him. “Carry away. I want to know everything. Night Vale is so normal for me, but so weird, I know, compared to the world. Your world sounds… boring.”  
“I don’t think boring is the right word?” Carlos’s tone made it a question, but what asked to himself, not to Cecil. “It is not a comparison that can be fairly made. They are just so… different.”

“Tell me about time and people aging then?” Cecil asked.

“It just happens,” Carlos said. “Each second passes by like 1… 2… 3…” He counted as the seconds would work in the outside world. “And for every 60 seconds there is a minute, for every sixty minutes there is an hour and for every 24 hours there is a day. Every day.”

“They’re all the same length?”

Carlos nodded “Without fail. Time works. It just keeps going. We have 24 hours in a day, and 365 days in a year, except leap years. Leap years happen in Night Vale right?”

“Well sure,” Cecil replied. “When the days leap back and forth and nothing happens in the right order and February takes up most of the year”

“Leap years are far less exciting than that outside of Night Vale,” Carlos said. “The only thing different about a leap year is that there is an extra day. February has 29 days instead of 28.”

“Sure, sure. February 29th babies only age one year for each four.” Cecil explained.

“In Night Vale. Outside of Night Vale they age normally and tend to just celebrate their birthdays on February 28th or March 1st.” Carlos told him, “They still grow at the right speed. Time continues and no one gets left behind.”

Carlos hadn’t thought about it in that way before. Time left people behind in Night Vale. It left people in a loop they couldn’t break out of. It left them aged 19 for almost a century. It left them growing ever so slowly, so they couldn’t make friends with their peers because they were just left behind.

“Time gets to every single person; they all grow older at the same rate.” Carlos continued with barely a pause. “You just continue, you’re 19, then 20, then 21 and so on. And hey? Do you want to know the best thing?”

There was no reply. Carlos looked down at Cecil and realised the other had fallen asleep on him. He smiled and kissed his forehead before continuing with one last thought.

“Mountains are real.”


End file.
